Alibaba-W (09988) opened sharply higher by nearly 4%. At the time of writing, the stock was up 3.88%, trading at HK$171.2, with a turnover of HK$811 million. The movement follows media reports, citing informed sources, that Alibaba is preparing to advance plans for the independent listing of its AI chip manufacturing subsidiary, T-Head. Alibaba intends to restructure the unit into a business entity partially owned by employees before subsequently seeking an Initial Public Offering (IPO); however, the specific timing for the listing remains undetermined, and the initiative is still in its preparatory stages. T-Head, a semiconductor chip company established by Alibaba in 2018, was formed by integrating Zhongtian Microsystems, which Alibaba Group acquired, with an internal chip team from the Alibaba DAMO Academy, focusing primarily on AI chips and RISC-V ecosystem technology. To date, in the computing power chip sector, T-Head has launched the AI inference chip Hanguang 800, the CPU chip Yitian 710, and the AI chip PPU; in the storage chip sector, it has released the SSD controller Zhenyue 510; and it is also reportedly set to introduce related products in the network chip space, establishing a full-stack chip portfolio for data centers. Furthermore, T-Head has launched the Yuzhen IoT chip for edge devices, which has already achieved shipments in the hundreds of millions, positioning the company across both cloud and terminal markets.
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